I think almost everyone I know in the software development field
has a deep hatred for patents and the way they've been used in our
field. I've had a post on my todo list for ages about this and have
finally been moved to write about it after a particularly
good piece of investigative journalism by This American Life.
The short form of my post is that while patents (even software
patents) are a good idea in principle, in practice they have turned
into an unmitigated disaster and would be better scrapped.